Book 11
1.172
Therefore although there is a suggestion of the chanting tone in the delivery of such passages as In an assembly of the Roman people (for he did not utter these words in a contentious tone), or in Ye hills and groves of Alba (for he did not say this as though he were appealing to them or calling them to witness), the ensuing phrases pro Mil. xxxvii. 102. require infinitely greater modulation and longer-drawn harmonies: Ah, woe is me, unhappy that I am! and What shall I reply to my children? and You, Milo, had the power to recall me to my country with the aid of these men, and shall I be powerless by their aid to keep you in that same country, your native land and mine? or when he offers to sell the property of Gaius Rabirius at one sesterce, Ah, what a sad and bitter task my voice is called on to perform! pro Rab. Post, xvii. 46. addicit, lit. knocks down : praeconium, lit. the task of the public crier. Again,
1.173
it is a most effective device to confess in the peroration that the strain of grief and fatigue is overpowering, and that our strength is sinking beneath them, as Cicero does in his defence of Milo: pro Mil. xxxviii. 105. But here I must make an end: I can no longer speak for tears. And in such passages our delivery must conform to our words.
